The 2004 Presidential election cycle is shaping  up to be one large political war (election 2000, Part II).

The Iraq and Al Qaeda connections 

Recently, the liberal leaning Carnegie team focused their sites on the Bush administration, outright accusing the President and the administration of exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam and the WMD threat. The administration vehemently disagrees and stands firm. On the matter of the connections between Al Qaeda and Iraq which were mentioned in the report, Vice President Cheney clearly told NPR today in a interview, that he's convinced that there was a relationship and connection between Al Qaeda, Saddam and the Iraqi government. Some of that linkage can be seen here on this website. The pictures show a meeting between Mohammed Atta (al-Qaeda) and Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al- Ani (former Iraqi intelligence official) in Prague, Czech Republic.  (link here: Atta and al-Ani Photo and Analysis)

Aside from what I believe is a wishy-washy like politically motivated analysis, the Carnegie's did admit in their report that meetings have occurred between Iraqi agents and Al Qaeda. But the meetings didn't rise to the level of a tactical cooperation. I suppose one should infer at the suggestion of the report, that those meetings were nothing more than that of a terrorist type of social event. 

WMD Trail

There is solid proof that was made public back on October 2, 2003 by the David Kay Iraq interim report,  that stated Saddam and Iraqi intelligence services methodically and deliberately destroyed important records.  Below here are pictures showing what Saddam and the Iraqi government did with the archives (historical records). Obviously, Saddam and Iraqi intelligence services didn't want certain types of information known. 

 Courtesy: CIA Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The basement historical files were systematically selected and destroyed.

Courtesy: CIA Storage room in basement of Revolutionary Command Council Headquarters. Burned frames of PC workstations visible on shelves. All rooms sharing walls with this storage room were untouched from fire or battle damage.

Courtesy: CIA Burned Documents Found at SAAD Center: An exploitation team on a recent mission to the SAAD Center, part of the Baghdad New Nuclear Design Center, found massive looting and the remnants of deliberately destroyed documents. Other documents were left untouched, however, and recovered by the team

Corroborated by the evidence shown in the pictures above, it does appear there was a deliberate (planned) strategy to cover up the different types of evidence by systematically destroying the important records relating to WMD, the associations and activities related to supporting nations such as the long time Saddam ally Russia, Iraq's ties (support) to terrorist organizations and other potential war crimes evidence. This destruction of the documentation and computer hard drives was occurring before the war, during the war, and after the war. I would say that was a very ambitious and serious operation. I also suspect this was done at the direction and help of another foreign intelligence service. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair stands by his intelligence and so does the Bush administration. It comes as no surprise to me that Kay hasn't been able to locate the programs taking into account  the destruction of the records and the evidence relating to the WMD. After all, this is what Saddam was so good at over the last 14 years. From 1991 to 1995 (cheat and retreat) Saddam denied he possessed any large scale programs and stockpiles until his son in law Hussein Kamel defected to Jordan and then disclosed the site and programs that Saddam had denied he had. Over a million pages of information relating to research of WMD was found. But most interestingly, the most important research papers were missing. Saddam had succeeded at removing the most important records before the weapons inspectors arrived there.. And as of today, they are still unaccounted for. 

Goading Politics

To sum it up, a number in the left wing, with the exception of a few like Sen. Joe Lieberman, are pushing a strategy designed to goad and chip away at the credibility of the Bush administration and its reasons to go to war in Iraq. One left wing report after another reveals what I believe is a directed strategy. Furthermore, I believe it has nothing to do with the right to express ones opinion or the imparting of information which one believes to be true, but rather to do with knowingly attempting to plant doubt and falsehoods through the use of suggestion to the masses to create confusion in hopes of  knocking down the Presidents poll numbers for political purposes. Strange how we don't see former President Bill Clinton coming out more than what he has defending his signed Iraq regime change policy directive. TW 1/20/2004